tour de france - poor quality

[bugbear]

I don't know wether it's ITV4 all the time, or wether the Tour
was being "cut down" for some reason, or wether the
almost continuous panning backgrounds give low compression,
but the MPEG artefacting on these programs was
absolutely nightmarish. More like YouTube than
professional broadcast.

Anyone know more?

BugBear

[tim.....]

"bugbear" <bugbear@trim_papermule.co.uk_trim> wrote in message
news:Q4ednROFgbnBbBDV...@posted.plusnet...

This is because it's on ITV4. It's transmitted with less bits than the main
channels

tim

[JohnT]

"tim....." <tims_n...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:6f6gv5F...@mid.individual.net...

Which is profoundly sad, because it's parent channel (ITV1) is not
over-endowed with bits either.
--
JohnT

[zumoz]

It was pretty crappy on Eurosport/Virgin also, I don't think the link
via motorbike and helicopter through the trees helps.

[John Watson]

bugbear wrote:

I'm glad I'm not the only one that noticed this. I even emailed ITV before
the Tour started to tell how crap last years was (due to low bit rate). I
asked if this year's Tour would be just as crap. They said they would "send
my comments to the appropriate dept". i.e /dev/null - the bin.

I was lucky in that our Irish language broadcaster TG4 also showed it, with
a significant improvement in picture quality. Thing is, the commentary was
rubbish :( Can't win I suppose.

[Brian McIlwrath]

zumoz <z...@m.com> wrote:

: It was pretty crappy on Eurosport/Virgin also, I don't think the link

: via motorbike and helicopter through the trees helps.

Not the cause of the crappy pictures!!!!

Sky now has Eurosport-HD and the TDF was postively *stunning* on it! Some of
the best live HD shots of glorious scenery (and the cyclists I suppose!)
I have seen for ages. The motorcycle/helicopter links did cause a little
breakup from time to time but all the cameras used seemed to be HD.

Once Eurosport-HD arrived TDF was just painful to watch on both British
Eurosport and ITV4!!

[John Watson]

Brian McIlwrath wrote:

> Sky now has Eurosport-HD and the TDF was postively *stunning* on it! Some
> of the best live HD shots of glorious scenery (and the cyclists I
> suppose!) I have seen for ages. The motorcycle/helicopter links did cause
> a little breakup from time to time but all the cameras used seemed to be
> HD.
>
> Once Eurosport-HD arrived TDF was just painful to watch on both British
> Eurosport and ITV4!!

Does Phil & Paul do the Sky commentary? They are probably the best out there
IMO.

Also, excuse my ignorance being a non-Sky user, is that a free channel or a
premium one?

[person]

Actually the scenery was pretty good even on SD but there was a lot of
break-up on the close-ups.

[zumoz]

Well if you are Irish you would be able to follow the Eurosport
commentary from Sean Kelly and comments by Stephen Roche!

I used to like David Duffield who would talk about anything at all
during the long stages, he once spent the entire afternoon talking
about French cheeses.

[John Watson]

zumoz wrote:

> Well if you are Irish you would be able to follow the Eurosport
> commentary from Sean Kelly and comments by Stephen Roche!

I don't have Sky. Or more specifically, I don't receive Eurosport.

[Brian McIlwrath]

John Watson <bcch+s...@orange.net> wrote:
: Does Phil & Paul do the Sky commentary? They are probably the best out there
: IMO.

No - Eurosport have David Harmon, Sean Kelly (former Tour rider) and
(some of) Emma Davies-Jones (woman pro-cyclist) doing the commentary. Start
to finish LIVE coverage of EVERY stage!

I admit to whizzing through ITV4's summary programme (on my Sky PVR) just
to still get words of wisdom from Phil and Paul!

: Also, excuse my ignorance being a non-Sky user, is that a free channel or a
: premium one?

Neither! Not free but not premium in the sense of Sky Sports or Movies!
To get Eurosport-HD would cost a minimum of £26/month (including the £10
extra for a selection of HD channels)

I was mostly poointing out how very good the basic pictures were - as compared
to what ITV4 showed!

[Brian McIlwrath]

person <ba...@home.com> wrote:
: >
: >Once Eurosport-HD arrived TDF was just painful to watch on both British
: >Eurosport and ITV4!!

: Actually the scenery was pretty good even on SD but there was a lot of
: break-up on the close-ups.

I could do A/B comparisons and the scenery in HD was pretty spectacular!

[person]

sorry, I wasn't saying that HD isn't a lot better than SD, just that
the poor quality OP complained of was not in the scenic shots but in
the action (for a couple of reasons presumably).

[Stan The Man]

I watched the live coverage in SD on Sky Ch410 and I thought the
pictures were the best ever (the HD cameras also benefiting the SD
feed). I also liked David Harmon's free-ranging commentary. I had to
record the Alpine routes so that my GF could watch them later. She has
zero interest in cycling but sits transfixed by the scenery.

Stan

[Brian McIlwrath]

Stan The Man <m...@pr100.com> wrote:

: I watched the live coverage in SD on Sky Ch410 and I thought the

: pictures were the best ever

That's British Eurosport of course!

: (the HD cameras also benefiting the SD

: feed). I also liked David Harmon's free-ranging commentary. I had to
: record the Alpine routes so that my GF could watch them later. She has
: zero interest in cycling but sits transfixed by the scenery.

Which was even better in HD and widescreen! I know some of those mountains
from skiing and the rate they can whizz up them is unbelievable!

ITV4 should, in principle, have had the same SD-converted from HD feed
that Eurosport were using - they must have really treated it badly!

[Mark Carver]

Brian McIlwrath wrote:
sits transfixed by the scenery.
>
> Which was even better in HD and widescreen! I know some of those mountains
> from skiing and the rate they can whizz up them is unbelievable!
>
> ITV4 should, in principle, have had the same SD-converted from HD feed
> that Eurosport were using - they must have really treated it badly!

If ITV were even half the broadcaster they pretend to be, then they'd be
showing the T-de-F in HD on their Freesat HD channel.

--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

[Stan The Man]

On 2008-07-31 10:32:35 +0100, Brian McIlwrath <b...@bkmpc.bnsc.rl.ac.uk> said:

> Which was even better in HD and widescreen! I know some of those mountains
> from skiing and the rate they can whizz up them is unbelievable!

Unbelievable indeed. Was it last Wednesday when they had three category
1 climbs in one day? Such fitness and stamina is beyond my
comprehension. All professional footballers should be forced to watch
the TDF. How can they complain about 3 x 90minute matches in a week?

Stan

[Mark Carver]

I agree with you, I come back from a couple of hours biking once a week in the
Hampshire countryside totally shagged out, I'm take my hat off to those guys,

[Andy Burns]

On 31/07/2008 13:38, Stan The Man wrote:

> All professional footballers should be forced to watch
> the TDF. How can they complain about 3 x 90minute matches in a week?

Yeah, because we need the premiershits to start injecting EPO and giving
themselves red blood cell infusions before every match

[Brian McIlwrath]

Andy Burns <usenet.a...@adslpipe.co.uk> wrote:
: Yeah, because we need the premiershits to start injecting EPO and giving

: themselves red blood cell infusions before every match

Actuallly the cyclists are now getting tested so often that it seems that
a fair number can do these climbs on natural body chemistry!

[Andy Burns]

On 31/07/2008 14:35, Brian McIlwrath wrote:

> Actuallly the cyclists are now getting tested so often that it seems that
> a fair number can do these climbs on natural body chemistry!

Fairplay to the clean ones.